On a recent flight, a UNC student kept peering out the window. Since it was totally dark, all she could see was the blinking wing- tip light. Finally, she rang for the flight attendant. "I'm sorry to bother you," she said, "but I think you should inform the pilot that his left-turn indicator is on and has been for some time."
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Sometime in your life, you've probably run into a waiter or waitress with a stinky attitude; maybe even two or three. But a lot of times you can't blame them totally, if you see the way a lot of them get treated in a day's time. They're not America's best treated people. Maybe that's why I've made it sort of a personal crusade to brighten their day a little bit by remembering their name, smiling, saying thanks and sometimes even goofing off with the server a little bit. Sometimes, when they come back during the meal they ask, "How is everything?" I'll say, "Wonderful! You're a great cook!" It's always fun to watch their response. Usually they just stop cold for a minute. Sometimes they'll laugh; sort of embarrassed and they'll say, "Oh, I don't cook it!" I know that. They're delivering what someone else created!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Only Delivering."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 9:13. The disciples are about to be part of the miracle of feeding 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. But the way Jesus involves them will show them a lifetime lesson - for them, and for us. They had just pointed out the problem: it's time to eat, there's a huge crowd, and there's no food in sight. "Jesus replied, 'You give them something to eat.'" Well, they did their best. They found that one little lunch.
Verse 16, "Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over." Question: Did that miracle come from those disciples? No way. They could never have produced food for 5,000 people. But they did hand it out - like that waitress with my lunch that she didn't cook. No, that miracle that day came through the disciples.
That's how it works with anything you accomplish for Christ's kingdom. When the Corinthian church was getting all focused on Paul and Apollos, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:5 that they were "only servants through whom you came to believe." And that's the power preposition of serving Jesus - through! It comes through you, not from you. Jesus creates it and just delivers it through you.
Which makes two attitudes toward assignments for God totally inexcusable. The first one is pride. Its God's working. And when you forget that, He'll work through someone else who will not steal the glory that belongs to Him alone. If I tell the waiter how great this meal is, he can't really say, "Thank you. I did it myself." The credit belongs to the cook. The server only delivered it. Make sure the right person is getting the glory.
The second unworthy attitude is pleading inadequacy as a reason for not doing what God wants you to do. I order an omelet, the waitress doesn't say, "I can't cook that!" Her capabilities aren't the issue here, it's what the cook can do that counts! Your ability, your adequacy is not the issue in serving Christ: it's His ability through you!
You do what those disciples did the day they were powerless to meet the needs of that hungry crowd - just make yourself available for God to send His resources through you. Make your hands, your feet, your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your personality, your possessions available to the Master. At that point it gets super-naturalized; something through which Jesus can love people, reach people, and change people.
There's something that God is preparing that He wants you to deliver. Next time you feel like bragging about it or copping out, remember - you don't cook it. You just deliver it.
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"A Word With You" by Ron Hutchcraft is a daily radio challenge, with slice-of-life illustrations and insights - providing practical help on the issues that matter most. If your local Christian radio station does not air "A Word With You," please let them know how much you value this program. Over six years of transcripts are available online, at http://rhm.gospelcom.net/awwy.php
This was not the first time that Jesus had taken his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane. The grove in the shadow of the Mount of Olives was a familiar place, but this was no ordinary evening. We think of gardens as a place to retreat, but Gethsemane was not a place of rest for Jesus that night.
In Aramaic, Gethsemane means "oil press." The olives grown in Gethsemane were used primarily for their oil; olive oil was needed for everything from fueling lamps to preparing food to healing wounds. In an olive press, the oil was squeezed from the olives by crushing them with a heavy stone wheel. The image of the press perfectly fits the agony Jesus went through that night. Radiant nineteenth-century paintings of Jesus praying placidly do not fit the biblical description. Luke writes, "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground" (22:44).
In the agony before his death, we see the Sonship of Christ most clearly. Jesus does not attempt to plan his way around the suffering, as so many of us do. He does not seek a solution to the problem before him. Instead, he seeks his Father. He knows that his Father is the one who can deliver him from the bitter cup or give him the strength to swallow it to the last drop. He cannot appeal to his friends, for they have fallen asleep in the hour of his trial. He cannot appeal to the Roman or Jewish authorities because he knows that if it is God's will for him to go to the cross, even they would not be able to deliver him.
In that hour when no one could hear him but his Father, he cries out "Abba" (Mark 14:36). This is the only time the gospel writers record Jesus addressing God in this way, and it was not a customary form of address for prayer. It was the Aramaic equivalent of "Papa," often the very first word spoken on the lips of a child.(1) The intimacy of this word makes Christ's agony even more apparent; he was not only about to be brutally tortured, he would be separated from the one who had always answered his distress. When a child loses a parent, the ordinary grief of death is even more severe because the one who has always been the comforter is absent. So it was with Jesus, though it was his own death that he faced.
I believe the battle was won that night. Jesus petitioned his Father and, knowing that he had been heard, accepted the answer, submitting himself to God's will. If we hope to take up our crosses and follow him, we must imitate his example by seeking God in prayer. How tempting it is to believe that sleep will best prepare us to face a difficult day, but sleep did not serve the disciples well. To be able to drink of the cup of suffering, we need to first watch and pray in Gethsemane. But in our midnight prayers, we will never be alone because he who was crushed for us sits interceding at the right hand of the one he calls "Abba."
(1) Keener, Craig S., IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament , (Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press) 1997.
-------------------------------- Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) "A Slice of Infinity" is aimed at reaching into the culture with words of challenge, words of truth, and words of hope. If you know of others who would enjoy receiving "A Slice of Infinity" in their email box each day, tell them they can sign up on our website at http://www.rzim.org/publications/slice.php. If they do not have access to the World Wide Web, please call 1-877-88SLICE (1-877-887-5423).
I'm not on an ego trip... I'm nothing on my own I make mistakes, I slip and fall.. just common flesh and bones But I'll prove some day, just why I say, I'm of a special kind For when He was on the cross, I was on His mind
For He knew me... yes He loved me He whose glory makes the heavens shine So unworthy of such mercy When He was on the cross, I was on His mind The look of love was on His face Those thorns were on His head His blood ran down that scarlet robe And it stained crimson red;
Though His eyes were on the crowd that day He looked ahead in time For when He was on the cross, I was on His mind For He knew me... yes He loved me He whose glory make the heavens shine So unworthy of such mercy When He was on the cross, I was on His mind...
If that were the only case where a professor tried to justify murder and terrorist acts, you could reasonably dismiss him as a lone crackpot. But, unfortunately, he is not alone and his comments are not unique. Moreover, because professors and others in academia have a huge influence on our young people we must be doubly on guard.
That's we should all be very thankful that David Horowitz wrote The Professors (which you can get for free). Horowitz blows the cover off 101 of the most outrageous university professors and their colleagues in the Ivy Towers of America. He exposes what these instructors of "higher learning" are teaching our young people:
Preach violent anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism
Say they want to kill white people
Cheer on the killing of American soldiers
Promote the views of the Iranian mullahs
Support Osama bin Laden
Lament the demise of the Soviet Union
Defend pedophilia
...all the while earning comfortable salaries from tax and tuition dollars, and college endowments.
Far from being marginal figures at third-rate community colleges, the 101 academics exposed in The Professors include many leaders of their profession at some of the nation's most prestigious universities and colleges -- including departmental chairs (such as Churchill himself), academic prize winners, and the heads of such professional groups as the American Historical Association and the Modern Languages Association.
Some of the academics profiled by Horowitz are present or former members of terrorist cells, others are convicted criminals, pedophiles, Communists, racists, and anti-Semites.
It gets worse, while some of the 101 most dangerous professors have set up their own pseudo-academic fields such as "Peace Studies," "Queer Studies," and "Whiteness Studies," most spread their hateful propaganda under cover of traditional disciplines such as history, English, economics, and anthropology.
Some of the 101 professors exposed by David Horowitz:
The Northeastern University professor who likens the 9/11 terrorists to America's Founding Fathers -- and claims that al Qaeda's jihad is a defensive one against the West
The self-described "civil liberties activist" who acts as the North American head of Palestine Islamic Jihad -- a terrorist group responsible for the suicide bombing murders of more than 100 civilians in the Middle East
The unrepentant former Weathermen leader ("I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough.") who teaches Early Childhood Education at the University of Illinois
The black professor-poet who openly advocates killing white men and raping white women -- and has been showered with academic honors and appointments
The author of a widely used "Peace Studies" textbook that endorses revolutionary violence, citing Cuba as proof "that violent revolutions can sometimes result in generally improved living conditions for many people"
The Columbia University professor who called for a "million Mogadishus" -- the 1993 military ambush in Somalia that killed 18 Americans
The Washington State professor who helped found the separatist organization MEChA, which seeks to establish an independent Hispanic state, "Atzlan," in the American Southwest
The City University of New York professor who teaches that blacks are morally and culturally superior to whites, and that "Jews are a race of skunks and animals that stole Africa from the Black Man"
The California State University department chairman -- and creator of the African-American holiday Kwanzaa -- who was convicted of torturing two female members of his radical organization
The University of Michigan anthropology professor -- recipient of a Woman of the Year award from a sadomasochist-rights groups -- who argues that the government's crackdown on child molesters is a "savage and undeserved witch hunt"
The 101 portraits in The Professors also reveal several disturbing patterns of university life, including: promotion far beyond academic achievement; teaching subjects outside one's professional area for the purpose of political propaganda; making racist and ethnically disparaging remarks with impunity; the overt introduction of political agendas into the classroom; and the abandonment of any pretense of academic discipline or scholarly inquiry.
David Horowitz's riveting exposé is essential reading for parents, students, alumni, taxpayers, and patriotic Americans who don't think college students should be indoctrinated by radicals opposed to everything that sustains our nation and our civilization.
Here at HUMAN EVENTS we have a reputation of rigorously reporting news other media outlets downplay or ignore. That's why we are glad to give you a free copy of The Professors when you sign up for a trial subscription today.
Each time you open HUMAN EVENTS, you will be thankful for a news source that brings you the straight facts and keeps you one-up and a step ahead. From recent issues:
FACT: During a study on the competency of teachers, half the teachers failed a qualifying verbal and math test
FACT: The National Education Association -- the nations largest teachers union -- spent over $90 million from 2004 to 2005 on (mostly liberal) political activities and related contributions
FACT: A national survey found that Democratic professors outnumber Republican professors 3 to 1 in economics, 28 to 1 in sociology, and 30 to 1 in anthropology
FACT: A loophole was purposely left in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform to exclude Indian tribes from certain campaign limits
FACT: The media is playing up the recent scandals in Republican ranks as "typical" Republican behavior, but a review of misconduct cases in the House show that Democrats have many more cases on record against them than Republicans
FACT: A recent study shows that teenage girls who have abortions are almost twice as likely to suffer from a variety of severe mental illnesses, including suicidal tendencies
FACT: The Iraq war is consuming far less of the US GDP than other wars in the past, contrary to the myth that the Iraq war is a major drain on the economy
FACT: A government agency sponsored a drug conference that included a lecture titled "You Don't Have To Be Clean and Sober... Or Even Want To Be"?
FACT: The top 50% of income earners pay 96.5% of the federal income taxes, while the lowest 44% pay no federal income taxes.
FACT: The federal government -- with your tax dollars -- subsidizes programs for kids to play golf at posh resorts
Sincerely,
Tom Winter President and Editor in Chief
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